Page 85 - ANNA KARENINA
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Anna Karenina
earth; but I’ve struggled with myself, I see there’s no living
without it. And it must be settled.’
‘What did you go away for?’
‘Ah, stop a minute! Ah, the thoughts that come
crowding on one! The questions one must ask oneself!
Listen. You can’t imagine what you’ve done for me by
what you said. I’m so happy that I’ve become positively
hateful; I’ve forgotten everything. I heard today that my
brother Nikolay...you know, he’s here...I had even
forgotten him. It seems to me that he’s happy too. It’s a
sort of madness. But one thing’s awful.... Here, you’ve
been married, you know the feeling...it’s awful that we—
old—with a past... not of love, but of sins...are brought all
at once so near to a creature pure and innocent; it’s
loathsome, and that’s why one can’t help feeling oneself
unworthy.’
‘Oh, well, you’ve not many sins on your conscience.’
‘Alas! all the same,’ said Levin, ‘when with loathing I
go over my life, I shudder and curse and bitterly regret
it.... Yes.’
‘What would you have? The world’s made so,’ said
Stepan Arkadyevitch.
‘The one comfort is like that prayer, which I always
liked: ‘Forgive me not according to my unworthiness, but
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